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Just In
In order to appeal to enterprise customers, you have to be flexible, and you have to be willing to negotiate on price; Apple doesn't do these things very well.
Apple likes to tell you what hardware you can run in its machines, and that usually doesn't sit very well with CIO's; we like flexibility, and we like to be able to modify a core-machine with cards, memory and drives of our own choosing.
Another issue price. Lots of people claim that the TCO on an Apple enterprise is lower than a PC-shop; I personally don't believe it...I've run the numbers myself on more than one occaision and couldn't make them work. There is just too much quality PC and Wintel server hardware out there at incredibly low prices.
Apple does "consumer" very well, and that's where it should stay.
"we like flexibility, and we like to be able to modify a core-machine with cards, memory and drives of our own choosing."
You keep pushing this meme, even though it has been proved incorrect numerous times.
In what way can I not "modify" my machine by adding "cards, memory and drives."
I guess the 6 drives I had running in my FW800 machine were a figment of my imagination, as was the SCSI RAID card. I guess the 2GB over stock (total 4GB) in my macbook are an illusion.
IT folks purchase IT hardware because that's where their interests lie. USERS purchase IT machines to run their software. That's where the disconnect lies. I've run nothing but Macs for twenty five years and I have YET to need IT folks for anything but an occasional basic tune up. My Mac-based systems at home and work are completely vertically integrated and 'they just work'. No complaints from this fan-boy.
Looks like you forgot a little problem called 'drivers'.
You may be happy with the modifications you were able to make on your Apple computer, but the reason PC's are on top and Apple is waaaaay down there is simple.
PC's have ALWAYS been an open platform. Apple is not open and never has been. IBM PC's and clones remained a flexible and relatively cheap platform making them useful for business. There is more to it than banging a PCI card into a machine or running QuarkExpress. You need wide software support and drivers for your hardware. PC's have always embraced a multitude of interfaces - have always been expandable, Apple's much less so.
Yes, even the OS needs to be flexible and here is another area where PC operating systems gave business what they needed. Let's not forget MS provided the best Office suite, the best development tools etc. etc.
I could go on.....
PC's stayed OPEN for business.
If I want a blade center with 10 blades 2 CPUs each will they do that?
The answer to all of these questions is no. Apple does not build enterprise grade machines.
"Looks like you forgot a little problem called 'drivers'.'
If it looks like that to you, you are not paying attention. First, driver issues exist for PCs too, especially with the move from XP to Vista, and from 32-bit to 64-bit. Your point is just not germane.
"You may be happy with the modifications you were able to make on your Apple computer, but the reason PC's are on top and Apple is waaaaay down there is simple."
The reason Windows machines are on top has NOTHING to do with them being an open platform. Either you were not around during the 70s and 80s, or you were fast asleep.
"PC's have ALWAYS been an open platform. Apple is not open and never has been."
First of all, there is no apostrophe in the term "PCs."
Second, IBM PCs have NOT always been open. You have no idea what you are talking about, and are just pulling stuff out of your ass. In fact, the first PC bus architecture was NOT open, and neither were many other iterations. More importantly, in what way is the PCI-X bus in macs not "open?"
Again, you have no idea what you are talking about.
"IBM PC's and clones remained a flexible and relatively cheap platform making them useful for business."
Again with the apostrophes. Again, the flexibility had little to do with their success.
"You need wide software support and drivers for your hardware."
This also had nothing to do with Windows success.
"PC's have always embraced a multitude of interfaces - have always been expandable, Apple's much less so."
Bull. Please cite examples on both sides.
"Yes, even the OS needs to be flexible and here is another area where PC operating systems gave business what they needed. Let's not forget MS provided the best Office suite, the best development tools etc. etc."
First, the Office suite is available for macOS, so that argument is irrelevant. Second, that MS' dev tools are the best is CERTAINLY debatable. In fact, I know few people who code on both who do not GREATLY prefer XCode.
"I could go on....."
Since you are just making stuff up, and not backing ANY of it up with facts, that is hardly surprising.
And elipses have three dots, not just any old random number.
Why do you post on matters you are completely ignorant about?!? At the very least, do 30 seconds of research before you post your drivel.
"Okay, so if I want a fibrechannel card, connected to an EMC SAN and AMD processors Apple's going to do that for me? If I want to run an Oracle cluster is Apple going to do that for me?"
1) Fibrechannel is and has been, available for OSX machines for quite some time. Same with SAN storage.
Are you bringing these things up because you truly think they are not available, or are you just talking out of your ass?
As for AMD, I seriously doubt you can list any companies that require AMD chips in order to make a purchase. That is just blatant cherry picking. Why not complain that Apple does not supply a BIOS option?
"If I want a blade center with 10 blades 2 CPUs each will they do that?"
Um, yeah, XServe.
Seriously, guy, you are a COMPLETE ignoramus. Sorry, but you just simply don't know what you are talking about, and the hubris involved in your feeling competent to post on this topic is astounding.
"The answer to all of these questions is no. Apple does not build enterprise grade machines."
No, the answer is not no. QED
Only limited hardware support. God forbid you should want to use an array controller not blessed by Steve Jobs himself. God forbid you should want to use a SAN solution that isn't XSAN.
Last I checked, there was no devine injuntion against EMC, or ATTO, or any of a number of companies in the OSX SAN market.
Again, you have NO idea what you are talking about.
the iphone and the ipad are the trojan horses. the workforce simply demands that they want to use the iphone and the ipad and contrary to a few years ago, where IT departments could specify which technology the workforce has to use the power balance is shifting. more and more IT departments have to give up their resistance and make apple hardware work within their system, or otherwise they're regarded as not making their job eventually even risking losing it.
No... the obstacle is that Apple's are no use to business. Why we keep going over and over this is beyond me. Windows is the most useful platform, Linux is the next most useful and below that there is Apple.
Same goes for phones. Just because a bunch of people who don't have a clue what they are talking about start hollering for the adoption of their beloved iPhone, does not mean it should happen.
I have used the iPhone and the iPad and I ran into the limitations pretty quickly. Useless....
Your response reads as very 'nerdish' to me
Is that why iPhone is losing market share to Android and even more when MiPhones come out?
A lot of enterprise software is written for either windows server, linux, or Solaris. OSX is none of the above...
then how do you explain that mac os had thousands of viruses before it went unix in 2001. mac os x since then has about 10 times the user base mac os had in 2000 and yet there is not a single mac os x virus. not a single one. please explain that to me.
Why do so many people claim that there isn't a single mac os x virus, when that isn't even true? There may not be as many as in the Windows world, but they're still out there. Mac OS X has worms, viruses, trojans, and spyware. Here's one for you listed right here. It's not immune, it's simply less popular.
OSX/Leap-A
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/osxleapa.html
LeapA is not a virus, so what is your point, exactly?
There are ZERO OSX viruses. Period.
I find it so interesting how Mac users define malicious programs so specifically when they're referring to things on the Mac's side. Then when it comes to the windows side, they just call everything malicious a "virus". All the Mac community really deserves is credit for being nothing more than less popular and ignorant. Although they're not alone here, the Linux community is the same way.
The point is there is essentially zero malicious malware/virus/etc in the wild. The threat is almost non-existent.
Well, let's be careful there. The official tally of viruses for OS 9 and below was 65.
Then I suppose there were a couple of Trojans to consider.
And there were an unknown number of Word Macro viruses, but those couldn't affect the Mac itself.
Among small players in the enterprise market (like myself, a physician), I strongly prefer Apple products because they do everything I ask them to do (which is quite alot), at a modest cost, with excellent customer service, and virtually complete reliability. Just as the American economy depends on growth in the small business market, Apple's enterprise growth probably depends on the small business market and the consumer products market. And they're doing a pretty good job at it.
As a Physician, you may work in a hospital that's large enough to really quality as an "Enterprise", though many are not that large. Basically, if you're talking to the PC provider yourself, and you're not a CIO or other full time IT guy, you're not in an Enterprise-class business.
With that as a given, they don't burn bridges. Single vendor lock-in, for any product, may be a reality, but it's also a choice of last resort. An Enterprise needs the ability to jump to Dell or HP hardware, as a drop-in replacement, if IBM isn't delivering what they need. They will never chose the MacOS platform across the Enterprise for this single reason: it's completely unnecessary single-vendor lock-in.
And in reality, large companies rarely are single-vendor outlets. They may unit behind a single OS (and if so, it's Windows, today), but they use multiple vendors, simply because they don't get the needed diversity of equipment from a single vendor. They may get their servers from one company, desktops elsewhere, laptops somewhere else still, factory floor rugged tablets or laptops somewhere else. Apple can't match the hardware diversity of one single PC company today. They won't ever deal with this kind of diversity.
As for iOS, it's immediately disqualified. Enterprises site-license software directly from a vendor, and develop what they need internally. iOS inserts an overly controlling and completely unnecessary middleman into this system. No one wants that.
Also Apple will need to be responsive to issues and needs from Enterprise customers. Rapid fixes to issues are a must.
Finally, Enterprises are much slower on adopting change and much less tolerant to forced change.
That joke has been awfully good for those who have owned the stock for several years.
You may be a smart a-- but it's better to be solvent.
First, there is no such word as *virii. The plural of virus is viruses. Period. Even if the word virus HAD a Latin plural (it does not) it would not be *virii. Where on earth are you getting that extra "i" from, huh?
Second, the fact that OSX is FULLY POSIX compliant, and a certified UNIX must really eat at you. Is Ubuntu? Hello? Unix is a child's OS? Really?
Some day it may occur to these people to simply acquire the equipment that accomplishes the task in a manner they prefer.
Hopefully they will stay with Windows .. they deserve it.
The fanboys have been listening too long to the Mac Evangelists...and the Evangelists have been taking the adoration of the fanboys as public praise... Some people would love to have a Mac Office...but only some.
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